The core foundation of Krav Maga Force is based upon the military and Krav Maga experience of its founders. The Krav Maga Force curriculum was developed, collaboratively, by a group of instructors from different Krav Maga organizations and world-wide recognized self-defense systems.
Krav Maga Force is a modern self-defense system designed to address and defend against present day street assaults and confrontations. It also aims to answer the need for a practical and simple way of self-defense, particularly for security and law enforcement forces, as well as for citizens wanting to learn fast and practical self-defense skills against any type of assaults. It is simple, realistic and easy to learn, and is an extremely efficient self-defense system.
The system is based upon realistic responses to assaults and aims to help the practitioner to properly react and respond to threats. The system also includes teaching the practitioner how to disengage from dangerous situations, leave the scene as fast as possible, or placing him/herself in a position of advantage against the attacker. Remember: when your life is at stake nothing else matters.
Krav Maga Force wants to collaborate with you, giving you the chance to certify yourself, your gym or one of your staff members in KMF.
We suggest you arrange a 2-4 hour public seminar to expose the public, your staff and your members to Krav Maga Force. Prices for this seminar will be at your discretion, but we suggest they range from $50-$100 per person. This money will be collected by you and shared at a 50/50 rate with the KMF instructor who will teach the seminar. Hosting this seminar will give you 2 Krav Maga Force instructor certification entries at a 50% discount. Those entries will be for the Krav Maga Force instructor certification course, which will be held at the end of May 2012 in Vancouver. The regular price for one KMF instructor certification is $1250 (50% Discounted entry - $625). If you are not interested in taking the instructor certification course you are welcome to host a basic seminar where all proceeds will be split equally. Thank you and take care.
Read the article below if you need more info about Krav Maga:
Krav Maga /krɑːv məˈɡɑː/ (Hebrew: קרב מגע [ˈkʁav maˈɡa], lit. "contact combat") is a noncompetitive eclectic self-defense system developed in Europe that involves striking techniques, wrestling and grappling. Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and extremely efficient, brutal counter-attacks.It was derived from street-fighting skills developed by Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler, as a means of defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava in the mid-to-late 1930s. In the late-1940s, following his emigration to Israel, he began to provide lessons on combat training to what was to become the IDF, who went on to develop the system that became known as Krav Maga. It has since been refined for civilian, police and military applications.
Krav Maga has a philosophy emphasizing threat neutralization, simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers, and aggression. Krav Maga is used by Israeli Defense Forces, both regular and special forces, and several closely related variations have been developed and adopted by law enforcement and intelligence organizations, Mossad and Shin Bet. Outside Israel, Krav Maga is used by various special police, military and intelligence forces, such as American CIA, FBI, US Marshals, USAF, DEA, Sky Marshals, various police departments (SWAT teams), French GIGN, Belgian Army, etc. There are several organizations teaching variations of Krav Maga internationally
Etymology
The name in Hebrew means "hand-to-hand combat". Krav (קרב) meaning "battle" and Maga (מגע) meaning "contact".
Basic principles
A key principle of Krav Maga is finishing a fight as quickly as possible and therefore all attacks are aimed towards the most vulnerable parts of the body (e.g., face, neck, groin, knee, etc.). Because there are no sporting rules, individuals trained in Krav Maga are not limited to techniques that avoid severely injuring their opponents, but training and sparring drills provide maximum safety to the students by the use of protective equipment and the use of reasonable force. For example, kicks to the groin during sparring is commonplace, but groin protection must be worn and students should demonstrate due diligence with regards for their partners' safety. Students learn to defend against all variety of attacks before engaging in full-contact sparring. Students are taught to respond to attacks in the quickest and most efficient way; a common lesson taught is 'always use the nearest tool for the job'. This basically means use whichever limb is closest to your attacker at the time and whichever feels most natural. Men and women generally undergo the same drills.[9][10] It has no sporting federation and there are no official uniforms such as a gi.[10] Usual training attire consists of a t-shirt and loose fitting trousers. Krav Maga is also one of the few martial arts in which footwear is habitually worn due to it being 'reality based training'. Most organizations recognize progress through training with rank badges, different levels, and belts.[11][12]
General principles include:[1]
Counter attacking as soon as possible (or attacking preemptively).
Targeting attacks to the body's most vulnerable points such as the eyes, jaw, throat, groin, knee, etc.
Neutralizing the opponent as quickly as possible by responding with an unbroken stream of counter attacks and if necessary a take down/joint break.
Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, further attackers, objects that could be used to defend or help attack and so on.
Basic training entails a warm up, learning the essential pressure points and how to approach and control an opponent utilizing the application of force. Students learn how to execute strikes and kicks including punches, hammer fists, elbows, various kicks and knees. Students learn defenses against takedowns, chokes, bear hugs, arm bars and various other possible attacks. Training also includes learning to defend against various weapons including knives, bats, guns etc. Pressure drills are also common so that students can experience being attacked by multiple attackers. Other pressure tests include students closing their eyes and then having to react to a variety of potential threats. Fitness and endurance training is also incorporated into regular classes.
Training can also cover situational awareness to develop an understanding of one's surroundings and potentially threatening circumstances before an attack occurs. It may also cover ways to deal with potentially violent situations, and physical and verbal methods to avoid violence whenever possible.
History
Imi Sde-Or (formerly, Imrich Lichtenfeld), founder of Krav Maga, was born in 1910 in Hungary and grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. Imi became active in a wide range of sports including gymnastics, wrestling, and boxing. In 1928 Imi won the Slovakian Youth Wrestling Championship, and in 1929 the adult championship (in the light and middle weight division). That year he also won the national boxing championship and an international gymnastics championship. During the ensuing decade, Imi's athletic activities focused mainly on wrestling, both as a contestant and a trainer.
In the mid thirties conditions began to change in Bratislava and Imi felt he had to take his fighting skills to the streets to protect Jewish neighborhoods from the growing numbers of fascist and anti-Semitic thugs who swarmed in Bratislava at the time. Imi quickly found however that although boxing and wrestling were good sports they weren't always practical for the aggressive and brutal nature of street fighting and he learnt the hard way that real life fighting was very different to competition fighting. It was then that he started to re-evaluate his ideas about fighting and started developing the skills and techniques that would eventually become Krav Maga. Having become a thorn in the side of the equally anti-Semitic local authorities, Imi left his home, family and friends in 1940 on the last refugee ship to escape Europe and the tightening Nazi noose.
After making his way to Palestine Imi joined Israel’s pre-state Hagana military organization. In 1944 Imi began training fighters in his areas of expertise: physical fitness, swimming, wrestling, use of the knife, and defenses against knife attacks. During this period, Imi trained several elite units of the Hagana and Palmach (striking force of the Hagana and forerunner of the special units of the IDF), including the Pal-Yam, as well as groups of police officers.
In 1948, when the State of Israel was founded and the IDF was formed, Imi became Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the IDF School of Combat Fitness. He served in the IDF for about 20 years, during which time he developed and refined his unique method for self-defense and hand-to-hand combat. After retiring from the army, Imi felt that Krav Maga could and should be adapted to meet the self-defense needs of civilians.[13][14]
Upon his retirement Imi opened a school to teach a civilian form of Krav Maga, including a version suitable for youth.[15] The first students to receive a black belt 1st Dan were Eli Avikzar, Rafi Elgarisi, Haim Zut (Haim Gidon was a student of Eli Avikzar), Shmuel Kurzviel, Haim Hakani, Shlomo Avisira, Vicktor Bracha, Yaron Lichtenstein, Avner Hazan and Miki Asulin.[16]
In 1978, Lichtenfeld founded the non-profit Israeli Krav Maga Association (IKMA) with several senior instructors.[17] Eli Avikzar was elected to the head of rank committee and Colonel David Ben Asher was elected to the Executive Director while Imi Lichtenfeld was elected a president 10th dan. Since Imi at his old age was giving black belts to foreign students without Eli Avikzar's approval, Eli resigned from the association and created Krav Magen Israeli. Thereafter various civilian krav maga association were created. Lichtenfeld died in January 1998 in Netanya, Israel.[10]
When Krav Maga started to spread beyond the borders of Israel, there arose a need to found an international organization. This happened mostly because the initial Krav Maga association existing at the time was divided and not functioning efficiently, due to dissension amongst the higher graded instructors. Imi Lictenfeld's students and second generation of students of Imi's students resulted in forming a new international Krav Maga federation with the support of his most loyal students and respected instructors, including Eyal Yanilov, Gabi Noah, Avi Moyal, and Eli Ben-Ami.[18]
Expansion to the USA
Prior to 1980, all experts in Krav Maga lived in Israel and trained under the Israeli Krav Maga Association.[19] That year marks the beginning of contact between Israeli Krav Maga experts and interested students in the United States. In 1981, a group of six Krav Maga instructors traveled to the US to demonstrate their system, primarily to local Jewish Community Centers. The New York field office of the FBI and the FBI's main training center at Quantico, Virginia saw it and expressed interest. The result was a visit by 22 people from the US to Israel in the summer of 1981 to attend a basic Krav Maga instructor course. The graduates from this course returned to the US and began to establish training facilities in their local areas.[20] Additional students traveled to Israel in 1984 and again in 1986 to become instructors. At the same time, instructors from Israel continued to visit the US. In 1985 Boaz Aviram the former Third Israeli Defense Forces Fighting Fitness Academy Chief Instructor after Eli Avikzar immigrated to the US. He started selectively training various law enforcement Individuals. Law enforcement training in the US began in 1985.[21] Many United States-based instructors have travelled to Israel to further learn Krav Maga. These instructors take the knowledge and teachings back to students who are based in the United States but want to learn from Israeli-taught instructors. David Kahn is the IKMA US Chief Instructor[22] who is based in Hamilton, New Jersey, Krav Maga Worldwide US Chief Instructor Darren Levine is based in Los Angeles, California, IKMA, Instructor Robb Hamic is based in Austin, Texas and IKM, Instructor Robert Amos is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Krav Maga is currently being taught as a primary hand-to-hand combat technique at some police departments in the United States.
Expansion to other countries
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Krav Maga has been growing in popularity since the early 1990s with more schools opening up in the UK, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, China, Italy, South Africa and a number of other European countries as well as Australia and South America. Krav Maga's growing popularity is due to a number of reasons; organizations such as the KMG, FEKM (European Federation of Krav Maga), IKMF have been promoting it a lot across Europe and various other parts of the world. TV shows such as The League, 24, The Simpsons, NCIS and Archer, as well as the films Taken and Enough have featured it. Krav Maga is being utilized by a number of professional organizations such as the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, FBI, and DEAwhich has led to increased popularity with civilians as well.
Krav Maga techniques
Alongside techniques developed by Lichtenfeld, Krav Maga integrates techniques from traditional Eastern European streetfighting, military combat, Kung-Fu, Karate, Boxing, Muay Thai, Judo, Aikido, Western Wrestling and Ju-Jitsu. While ancient martial arts already developed ways to reach all the angles of the human body with kicks and hand strikes, Krav Maga Kicks and Hand strikes are unique in their teaching methods and actual execution that calls for most efficiency and effectiveness in their respective need for execution.This is a list of some of the techniques practiced in Krav Maga, according to the book The Complete Krav Maga by Darren Levine as well as the Krav Maga Dallas-Fort Worth website:
Arm techniques
Punches are highly emphasized in Krav Maga as basic strikes which are useful in almost any situation. Training in boxing is highly prized in Krav Maga (Lichtenfeld was himself a boxer at national-level). Among the punches taught are the straight punch, palm heel strike, low punch, hammerfist, hook, uppercut, chop, overhand, as well as a variety of elbow strikes.
Leg techniques
While Krav Maga does use kicks, it focuses on efficient, low-risk kicks. The main focus is on low kicks. More advanced and risky kicks are taught at high levels, but use of them is discouraged. They are primarily taught so that practitioners are able to recognize them in case they are facing an opponent with a background in kick-heavy martial arts. Leg techniques that are taught include the front kick, round kick, side kick, back kick, heel kick, slap kicks, axe kicks, various knee strikes, and sweeping.
Head strikes
Krav Maga uses all of the tools available, including the head.
Defense techniques
Krav Maga practitioners are taught to go from defending to attacking as quickly as possible, and most blocking techniques are designed to facilitate this. They learn how to defend against both kicks and punches, as well as learning how to defend against attacks from any angle.
Throws and takedowns
Throws are not covered much in Krav Maga, because the system stresses staying off of the ground. Some techniques that are taught include the wristlock, one and two leg takedowns, the hip throw, and the one arm shoulder throw.
Groundfighting
While Krav Maga stresses staying off the ground at all costs, it accepts that you may eventually have no choice but to fight there. Students are taught the best positions while on the ground, how to throw certain kicks while on the ground, arm bars, triangle choke, and guillotine. They're also taught to defend against punches while mounted, chokes, headlocks, and what to do if their wrists are pinned.
Gun, knife and stick defenses
Krav Maga details many ways to remove and defend yourself against many common weapon threats. These Krav Maga Techniques include: Gun defense techniques, Knife defense techniques, and blunt striking weapons, such as a stick. The use of these techniques vary: each possible scenario requires its own set of actions.
Current usage
All Israel Defense Forces soldiers, including all Israeli Special Forces units,[9] learn Krav Maga as part of their basic training. Further, Krav Maga is the defensive tactics system used to train the Israeli Police,[11] Israeli Intelligence and all Security Divisions. Krav Maga is also taught to civilians, military, law enforcement and security agencies around the world. Schools can be found everywhere from Australia and the UK to South Africa. The International Krav Maga Federation in Netanya north of Tel Aviv trains some of the world's top bodyguards, who use Krav Maga as a trade fighting art since it includes several exercises in evacuating a VIP through a hostile crowd. Also, the tactics for dispatching several opponents quickly is vital for personal protection agents.[11][25] Krav Maga is also being deployed in the Palestinian territories, particularly for its versatility, where Israeli soldiers adapt it for crowd control purposes.
Krav Maga has further been refined for different organisations and the skillsets required for their disciplines. More specific applications exist for the army (attack orientated), the police (tailored more towards threat neutralization) and self-defense for civilians.
Additionally, the civilian curriculum for Krav Maga in the U.S. has branched out into distinct styles: a more American curriculum may focus on fitness and cardio workouts whereas its Israeli counterpart emphasizes understanding the dynamics of the hostile environment, focusing on the psychology of street confrontation, efficiency (in dealing with multiple attacker scenarios) and threat neutralization.
Organizations and forces using Krav Maga
Israel
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
Regular Forces
Mossad
Shin Bet
United States
United States Air Force
U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI)
Some divisions of the United States Coast Guard
Federal Agencies, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), United States Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and others.
SWAT teams
Several police and sheriff's offices
France
National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN)
Belgium
Belgian Army
Grading system
Most of the Krav Maga organizations in Israel, such as the IKMA (Israeli Krav Maga Association, by Haim Gidon), KMF (Krav Maga Federation, by Haim Zut) and Bukan (By Yaron Lichtenstein), use Imi Lichtenfeld's colored belt grading system which is based upon the Judo ranking system. It starts with White belt, and then Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Brown and Black belts. Black belt students can move up the ranks from 1st to 9th Dan. The time and requirements for advancing have some differences between the organizations.
Other organizations outside of Israel like the International Krav Maga Federation (IKMF), Krav Maga Global (KMG), and International Krav Maga (IKM) use the same grading system based on a series of patches.[26] The patch system was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld after the belt system in the late 1980s. The grades are divided into 3 main categories; Practitioner, Graduate and Expert. Each of the categories, which are often abbreviated to their initials, has 5 ranks. Grades P1 through to P5 are the student levels and make up the majority of the Krav Maga community. After P5 are G1-G5, and in order to achieve Graduate level the student has to demonstrate a proficiency in all of the P level techniques before advancing. The majority of instructors hold a G level grade and are civilian instructors. However, passing the instructor's training course is a requirement, and holding a Graduate rank does not necessarily make one an instructor. The Expert grades cover military and 3rd party protection techniques as well as advanced sparring and fighting skills. People who hold these ranks usually specialize in military and police instruction. In order to progress to Expert level, one has to demonstrate proficiency in all of the Practitioner and Graduate syllabus' and have excellent fighting skills. Beyond Expert 5 there is the rank of Master. However, this rank is held by only a small number of individuals and reserved only for those who have dedicated a lifetime to Krav Maga and made valuable contributions in teaching and promoting the style.
Krav Maga organizations in the United States and in Europe have developed their own grading system, which follows a belt system. Although their system has fewer grades than the above patch system, the syllabus covers the same core techniques and principles. Although there are some variations depending on the organisation, the belt ranking system mostly follows this order: Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Brown, Black (dans 1 – 5), Red/White (dans 6 – 7), Red (dan 8)
In popular culture
Krav Maga has been featured in several prominent mediums including film, television and video games. Sam Fisher of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video game and book series is an expert in Krav Maga (for example, it can be seen in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction video game). Jennifer Lopez in the Enough movie trains and practices Krav Maga. Animated spy Archer revealed in the episode "Training Day" that members of his organization practice Krav Maga rather than Karate. Niko Bellic, the playable character of the videogame GTA IV, uses Krav Maga moves when fighting, especially when counter attacking and defending against knives and bats. Eliza Dushku portrays a Krav Maga instructor in an episode of The League titled "The Light of Genesis". A young woman is seen practicing self defense she later describes as Krav Maga in the opening scene of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, season 12, episode 21. In the [Rock] episode "¡Qué Sorpresa!," Jack Donaghey reveals that he has had Krav Maga training. In The Office episode "The List," Dwight Shrute says that he has Krav Maga lessons four times a week. The Simpsons episode "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed" featured an extended sequence about the martial art when the family visits Israel.